There are numerous surface covering materials on the market today used in numerous industries. Some surface covering materials arrive from the manufacture, distributor, or storage warehouse as rolls of the material. A non exclusive list of examples might include carpets, mats, padding, linoleum, or certain roofing material. Various industries require mass installation of these surface coverings. Current methods of installation are highly inefficient and possess inherent health risks.
The current and perhaps most common method for a worker to roll out floor covering is the kick method. The kick method involves a worker at each end of the roll walking backwards and kicking each end of the roll with the sole of their shoes. As each worker kicks the roll forward, the roll typically drifts off the target covering area and becomes uneven and slack. Consequently, the workers must pull the covering straight and back to the proper area after they finish unrolling the roll. The kick method provides little control of the rolled surface covering. This allows the roll to get off line easily, necessitating a secondary operation to pull the carpet back in line. Secondary operations result in increased inefficiencies and increased likelihood of injury. Also, the repetitive movement and stress on the lower body while performing the kick method causes an increased likelihood of lower body injuries.
Another method occasionally used is the dolly method. In this method, a worker lifts the center of the unrolled portion of the surface covering roll with a dolly. This results in the roll rolling off the dolly shelf and moving forward a few inches. The worker then moves the dolly forward to pick up the unrolled portion of the roll. The worker then lifts and repeats the process. This method is inefficient because the dolly only moves the roll forward a very small distance each step. Using this method increase installation time consequently increasing costs.
Another method used is the kneeling method. In this method workers work from their hands and knees pushing the roll forward. This method is slow and forces workers to work from an awkward position, increasing the risk of injury to the workers.
These methods of rolling out floor covering causes back, knee, and muscle injuries. The frequency of these injuries is exacerbated by the scale of large installation projects and the minimal time allotted to accomplish the installation.
An exemplary industry that performs massive rolled surface covering jobs is the exposition services industry. In the exposition services industries, work crews install tens of thousands of linear feet of padding and carpet before an exposition begins. To begin the carpet installation at an exposition, the workers unload the carpets from trucks using dollies and deliver them to the show room floor. On the show room floor, the workers use the kick method to roll out the carpets across the show room floor. Using the kick method it takes approximately two to two-and-a-half minutes in order to unroll an average carpet section. After each carpet section is unrolled, the workers perform a second operation to straighten out the carpet and move it to the correct location. The workers then tape down individual sections of the carpets. Because of installation time constraints, workers are only given a narrow window of time to install floor coverings. The redundancy of the awkward labor causes the workers numerous injuries. These injuries increase the employer's workman's compensation premiums. Further costs are added due to extreme inefficiencies based on the two to two-and-a-half minute time requirements for unrolling each of the floor coverings. The added inefficiency of accomplishing the secondary operations of straightening and taping the surface coverings adds even more costs.
Due to the cumulative costs between high workman's compensation coverage requirements, lengthy covering rollout times, and unnecessary secondary operations an improvement in the industry is needed.